On November 11-14, 1982 Jim White and I headed up the Duck Lake Pass Trail on a ski tour. We left Independence really early and were ready to go at Tamarack Lodge around 8:30 a.m. Parking was readily available as they weren't really open for the ski season as the snow had just fallen three days earlier. The snow was soft and a little wet but by using the snowmobile tread we made good time along the road. The snowmobile was all we saw as the lodge began grooming the trail - we had the area to ourselves.
We reached the end of the Cold Canyon campground road shortly after noon and had lunch. From here on the going was much slower as we had to break trail in the soft snow and we were climbing a good hill. About 3 p.m. we topped the hill not far from Arrowhead Lake and made camp.
Next morning the going was still slow due to the fresh and fairly wet snow so we only moved about two or so miles and made camp early at the inlet to Skelton Lake. Jim used his new snow shovel to dig a fairly large snow cave for practice. He tried to see how thin he could make the roof and it collapsed on him but he had fun. After a nap we fixed supper and sacked out between 8 and 9 p.m.
The next morning we left camp in place and skied high up onto the northerly slopes of the mountains. Found neat little bowl to ski in. I managed to bury my head about two feet (BRRRRR!!!). We then skied down to Barney Lake, across it and down the creek back to camp, arriving about 4 p.m. After a long nap we fixed supper between 8 and 10 p.m.
The next morning we broke camp and skied down our up tracks back to civilization. Not another person had come our way and we didn't see others until we got back on the main Lake Mary loop road. We made it back to the car around 1 or 2 and headed home after a very fine four days.
